Why Can’t We Cheer for Black America? : Hollywood: The industry should do more than rake in money. It should give something back by providing heroes in more than one color.

And speaking of taking down walls . . .

For most intents and purposes, Hollywood still has up the “white trade only” sign for its movies and television shows. While there are certainly far more blacks in the mass culture now, they are still largely in the lower depths of the alternate reality that Hollywood presents to America, as America. Blacks are still largely represented on screen by drug dealers, drug addicts, con men, scammers of all kinds, gangsters and, occasionally, frustrated detectives.

With some exceptions, blacks have not traveled far from the land of Stepinfetchit--real-life cartoon figures for whites to laugh at as they get clobbered and twisted around, especially by their inability to adapt to the white man’s world.

But this is a major wrong. The black community in America is in deep crisis. Among the basic things it needs is inspiration. Movies and TV shows can deliver that inspiration. Movies, especially, can permanently change a viewer’s ideas of human potential. Think of Audie Murphy on Iwo Jima. Think of Knute Rockne. Think of Sigourney Weaver in “Alien.” Think of Rocky Balboa. Why can’t Hollywood deliver this kind of inspiration using black heroes and heroines? Why can’t Hollywood make us stand up and cheer for black Americans?

To be sure, part of the answer is explicit racism. I know powerful people in Hollywood who will purposely not put blacks in their shows for fear of depriving white audiences of scenes of perfect, imaginary tranquility. I know others who believe that blacks do not deserve to be heroes on the big or small screen.

But whatever the reasons, Hollywood can and should overcome them. Hollywood owes America more than just to rake in money. In this time of domestic crisis, Hollywood owes the kind of inspiration that could literally make a lifelong impression on masses of demoralized black Americans. Like every other group that has prospered in America, the movers and shakers of Hollywood ought to give something back.

For example, how about a variant of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” starring a black? In this version, a black former star athlete would be appointed to the U.S. Senate to serve out the term of a deceased lawmaker. On getting there, he would serve capably and also as a model to young children in the capital. But he would be framed by wicked investment bankers whose special-interest legislation he is blocking. He would be made to look like a drug dealer himself. Only by dogged, lonely persistence in his innocence, only by reference to the great ideals of America as expressed by Jefferson, Lincoln and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would he find the strength to carry on his fight. The small children of Washington would vindicate him and prove his innocence. When they march onto the Senate floor for him, we weep with joy and relief.

How about a movie on any of the black heroes in Vietnam? If the Cold War is really over (which I doubt), it is over largely because of the service of America’s soldiers, sailors and airmen since 1945 on a dangerous, lonely and poorly paid vigil. The blood of many thousands of black men was shed in that struggle, disproportionately so in Vietnam. Let’s stand up and cheer for them.

Let’s see the saga of a poor black man who came from the slums of Detroit, who might have hated America but saw her promise and saved dozens of his pals, including whites, by giving his life in battle in some long-forgotten hamlet in Vietnam.

Or how about the brave black women who stand up to the drug dealers of the projects in Washington, New York and Los Angeles and face MAC-11 automatic pistols with simple decency and love for their children? Don’t they deserve a movie?

Or the black athletes who do not take drugs and play despite incredible pain on rainy, cold days? Or the black teachers who stand up to gangs, for no added money, to save the children they teach?

Let’s take down the wall that Hollywood has put up that separates American blacks from sharing their pride through the motivational power of movies and TV. They need it, and so does the rest of America.